Bring Her Home
by samuraistar
Summary: Maybe not the crossover we've all been waiting for, but definitely the one I've been waiting to write! Chell finds her way out of Aperture Labs and into Hero's Duty, where she finds something she never thought possible: A female entity who DOESN'T want her dead.


Holy crap…

Do you realize it's been four years since I've written anything? FOUR YEARS! What the crap, inner muse? Why are you still comatose and how can I wake you up for another epic?!

I hope I haven't lost any of you due to inactivity! I'd like to give the usual excuses of a lot going on with life and junk, but honestly, I'm stuck in a writer's block so this little tidbit is my rebellion against it. I hope you like this and that it'll help my inner muse wake up!

* * *

 **Bring Her Home**

She was young.

She was strong.

She was absolutely terrified.

Those three things were what made the first impression Tammy had of the outsider that had suddenly popped out of the hole in the wall, a hole rimmed with bright blue that had no more place in _Hero's Duty_ than she did.

She tripped over when she first appeared, causing her to drop the bright cylinder she'd been carrying. Then she saw she wasn't alone so she jumped to a defensive stance and pointed the thing at Tammy's squadron.

Tammy continued looking at the younger woman: She had copper skin that looked darker in the gloom, brown hair in a wild ponytail, and dark eyes that tried not to waver. She wore a white tank top, orange pants with what looked like a matching sweater tied around her waist, and strange white footwear that Tammy would later describe to Felix as "technological go-go boots."

All this the sergeant took in at a glance before commanding her troops to stand down. The younger woman didn't move.

* * *

It was stupid, really, to try and defend herself with a gun that only shot portals. Chell knew that, but _they_ didn't, judging by the way they didn't try to charge her.

They were humans, like her. It was weird seeing other humans—conscious ones, that is. they had guns, too, _real_ ones, but they didn't automatically try to drill her full of lead like those mindless turrets. It was a welcome change, but it also gave her more time to wonder what they would do and if she'd be able to respond well. A turret could be knocked over and disabled; a human, if they were anything like her, could and would be angered at any sign of hostility.

The armored woman in front seemed to recognize this logic. She had a commanding voice and presence and by the way the giant men obeyed her orders, Chell knew she was their leader.

But that brought a fresh wave of terror to her throat. Chell remembered only _one_ female in a position of authority and though her logical brain knew better, her eyes saw the cold armor and faceless helmet she wore and trembled where she stood.

* * *

Tammy took one cautious step forward and paused as a feral cry issued from the girl's throat. She couldn't begin to imagine what kind of hell such a young person had been put through, but she knew PTSD when she saw it.

"Sergeant, I wouldn't," Kohut warned as she removed her helmet.

"It's all right, Kohut," she said, "I've got this."

Being married to Felix had fostered her soft side to such a point that the morale and mental health of her troops was the best it had been since being plugged in. If she could handle her giant galoot soldiers, she figured she could reach out to just about anyone.

* * *

Chell's eyes flew wide and then softened as the leader took her helmet off.

"Young lady," she called clearly with a sort of strong kindness, "My name is Tammy. This is _Hero's Duty_ , the arcade game. Can you tell me your name?"

* * *

Still choked with fear, Chell couldn't force an answer. She saw the lady's armored gloves and remembered that She had existed because they'd put Caroline's brain in a computer. This wasn't some horrible future of freaky cyborgs, was it? Had she somehow stumbled into something even worse than Aperture Labs? Was that even possible?

* * *

' _She's afraid of the armor,'_ Tammy thought as she stopped in front of her. She slowly pressed a button on her left forearm and the armor retracted up to her elbow on both arms.

"You see?" she said with a hand out, "It's just armor. I'm 100% human, just like you."

She watched the young woman reach out for her hand, first with one hand, then she put down the gun to hold it with both. Tammy stood silently and watched her face.

* * *

Chell could remember nothing before the lab, where everything was cold and artificial, calculated and lifeless. The feeling of another hand in hers—warm, organic, and totally unpredictable—was a miracle beyond her imagining.

' _She's not like Her,'_ she thought as she stared wondrously at her face, _'None of them belong to Her. They're different._ _ **She's**_ _different.'_

She ran her thumb over the beautiful ring she wore. It was gold with two diamonds embedded right into the band so as not to get in the way of her gloves.

The sight of it brought back knowledge of things she knew existed beyond the lab—wedding rings, marriage, love, family, home, friends, society, everything Aperture had wiped from her brain in the name of science.

It was gone.

It was all gone.

All she had now were the clothes on her back, the portal gun…and her name.

* * *

Tammy's heart wrenched to see the warm tears plipping heavily onto her hand and she looked into the young woman's flowing eyes. It was like seeing Vanellope cry. She watched her bruised, bare shoulders shake as the reality of her situation finally broke the hold of her fear.

"Chell." Her voice croaked as she finally, _finally_ shared her name. _"My name is Chell!"_

Tammy knelt to catch her as she fell to her knees and cried for all she was worth. She retracted the rest of her armor and held her like a child.

"Chell," she murmured warmly, "That's a beautiful name. It's nice to meet you, Chell."

THE END

* * *

 **Author's Review** **:**

You know, sometimes you'll have an idea that you'll just sit on for X amount of years and then one night, you'll be sitting up with blank paper in front of you and a pen in your hand and suddenly, that old idea will knock on your door and remind you that you had it. That's pretty much what happened here.

I always wondered what would happen if Chell ever found her way into the Wreck-It Ralph universe. I had her meet Tammy first because I figured she'd be the best one to handle her while she's still freshly traumatized. Between that and the ungodly amounts of anime I've been watching, (more so than usual) I managed to give birth to this little one-shot.

The title came to me several months after I saw _Les Miserables_ the movie. "Bring Him Home" is a wonderful song and it touched me personally. So when I started imagining Chell being vulnerable in Tammy's company, I started singing a genderbent version where you replace "boy" with "child" (it still works if you sing it to yourself) and I changed the "son I might have known" line to "the child I might have known if God had granted me just one." It's not a great parody by any means, but eh, I found it inspiring enough. I even have a pen doodle of it that I'm not going to show you because it's atrocious and I am NOT a visual artist by anyone's standards.


End file.
